Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1887-01-08
THE RIrE OF JOHUR

An Awful Sacrifice Made by FanaticaI
Women in Old India.
In Reuters telegram Of the Dist of
October read: ga repetition Of the
Johur ordeal, has occurred In a Brahmin
village near Neemuch, in Bengal; the
object being to avoid the Tonk Dunbar
assessment. The Two victims calmly
assembled the funeral pyre, and bravely
met death. The villagers afterwards
took their charred heads to Odeypora."
Neemuch is a town and British canton
ment in the territory of Cavalier, and
is situated at a short distance from the
boundary separating that tract Of coun-
try from the State otOdeypore, in Raj
pootana. 1t is Just where one would
expect the Johur to take place, if any
where; for it is essentially a RajpOot
rite, like the sacrifice of widows and Or
phans. The present case is a remarka-
BILE one, for Johur, in past history, was
never used to avoid assessment, and the
telegram does not say whether the VIC
tins were male or female.
Johur is an awful rite. A whole tribe
may become extinct by If, as is seen by
several instances recorded in the history
Of the Raipoot States. What it signifies
is the burning of women to save honor.
The RajpOot is profoundly jealous Of the
honor of his women, and to prevent their
falling into the hands OF the cOnquerors,
then to be dealt with as was often the
case in the wars with the MohRmmedans,
he has recourse to the Johur-that is to
say, the immclatiOn Of every female of
the family. And the Rajpoot woman
gladly embraces such refuge from pol
luton; or even if she were not in fear of
being forced away as a captive, she
would prefer it to living on as a widow.
The loss of battle or the capture of
city during the MOhammedan invasions
was usually the time when this dread
full rite was practiced. At the end of
the famed siege OF Cheetore, the ancient
capital of the Rama of OdeyPore, by Ala
uddin, in 1903, the RajpOot chief, after
an RrdQous day, passed the night in
bordering the means Dy which ne might
save from the general destruction one at
Ieast of his twelve sons. Eleven of
them re- during the next few days, and
wheD but one son remained to the Rama
lie proclaimed the Johur. The funeral
pyre was lighted within subterraDeOG
chambers where the suns rays mad
lever entered, and the defenders u Chez
tJre beheld the queens, and elleir own
wives and daughters, to the number of
several thousands, pass IN the procession
to the fire. The beaut full Pudmant, the
cOnsort OF the Rama, who was believed
to be the chief object of attraction for
the conquering Tertar, came last IN the
throng. The door of the caverns closed;
the fires ragged within; and the honor Of
the RajpoOt women wRa saved. When
afterwards Ala-uddin entered the capital
on the death of the Rama and his sur
viYing son, who fell IN the conflict, he
found it strewn with the bodies of its
defenders, while smoke yet issued from
The recesses where the women had per-
ished.
Again during the second siege Of
Cheetore by BahadoOr, Shah of Gujrat,
in 1880, when the bravest had fallen in
defending the breach caused by his
artillery Git was served by Portuguese
adventurers) the JOhur was proclaimed.
There was little time to build the pyre.
Combustibles were heaped up In hurried
ly made holloWs in the ground and
magazines were placed around them.
The mother of the infant prince led the
procession OF willing victims to their
doom, and $4,000 females were thus in
mOlated at once.
In the JOhur on the occasion Of Firoz
Shah's attack upon Jessulnir, some
years after the event above described,
5000 females were destroyed.
The JOhur was practiGed not only
when the foe was the lustful and blood
thirsty Tartar; there are also instances
OF it In the intertribal wars Of the Raj
pOot. Numerous inscriptions on stone
and On brass, according to tie archesol-
Ogists, record as the first token OF VIC
tory the captive wives Of the foe, and
the Law OF Manu- with regard to female
captives In war Is analogous to those Of
Moses aud Mohammed on the same
point.